London - the tourist

London Travel Blog

One of the questions people commonly ask Hannah and I once
they hear we came from New Zealand is "why did you leave!" The
question really highlights one fatal flaw of travel - you never seem interested
in what is immediately in front of you. Few people in New Zealand could say
that they have properly experienced their own country. Hannah and I certainly
didn't. When we see tourist brochures of NZ and hear people talk about what
they would like to do there we have to step back and smile and nod. We havn't
climbed the alps or gone skiing at Mt Hutt. We havn't gone on the wild food
festival or sailed out to Stewart Island. We could say that we've 'done'
Auckland but who wants to boast about that?!

What I was trying to say, however, is that people never seem to explore their
immediate vicinity.

St Paul's Cathedral (from the front)

Even people who move here to London do so 'to travel'
rather than to 'see London'. Every holidays or weekend they have free they get
the train to Paris or fly to Spain. If you ask them whether they have gone to
Westminster Cathedral or the London eye they say "all in good time sir,
all in good time". Funny thing is that when you move to a new place you
often take for granted that you could see the sights round the corner whenever
you want so you may as well go elsewhere.

Even without going out of London, however, there is so much
to see and do. Although it has taken us 5 weeks to have free time on weekends
(thus far the time has been used to set up house; shirts, ties, pants, water
purifier, mugs, bedding, etc), we are finally there and are able to spend some
time going around looking at things.

New Life Bible-Presbyterian Church. I don't really understand the pink doors but at least they stand out :)

Some of the places we have seen warrant
another look but from the inside. This is certainly true of both the Royal
Albert Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral. Probably not true of the squirrels we keep
seeing everywhere.

There is an abundance of old and ageing things in London. There
are a profuse amount of statues everywhere; some of them older than New
Zealand. You can see a lot of these at the Embankment. As well as statues there
seem to be old churches scattered frequently throughout the city. Although the regular
attendance is very low at most of them they have a lot of history behind them. The
church we are attending in Queen’s Park, for example, has about 30-40 regular
members yet it has been blessed with not just a pipe organ but also a grand
piano. The building is over 100 years old and is aging very well.

Anyway, now that Hannah and I can use our time for
exploratory endeavours I will be able to get more photos and give you a better
rundown of what is actually going on.